Investigating a career in PsyD

NDS · Jun 2, 2005

I'm just starting to consider a career in psychology, I have some very rudimentary questions, that I would really appreciate if someone could answer concisely:
1) What is the difference between Ph.D and PsyD in the numbers of years in school? Can Ph.D. also get licensed to practice as a clinical psychologist?
2) does PsyD usually get funded, or are there heaven tuition like the medical school?
3) Do you have to have a master degree to get into PsyD programs?
4) What is the job prospect for Ph.D and PsyD? competition? salary? stable?
5) When is the earliest time to apply? Can I take my GRE in november, is that too late? Do they require GRE Psychology?
6) What is the different between PsyD and MD in psychology?
8) I know I really want to be involved clinically, is PsyD better than Ph.D. for that?
9) Any advice for me as a new applicant?

That's all for now 🙂 Thanks in advance to those who is going to answer them! 🙂

psychgeek · Jun 2, 2005

NDS said:
I'm just starting to consider a career in psychology, I have some very rudimentary questions, that I would really appreciate if someone could answer concisely:
1) What is the difference between Ph.D and PsyD in the numbers of years in school? Can Ph.D. also get licensed to practice as a clinical psychologist?
2) does PsyD usually get funded, or are there heaven tuition like the medical school?
3) Do you have to have a master degree to get into PsyD programs?
4) What is the job prospect for Ph.D and PsyD? competition? salary? stable?
5) When is the earliest time to apply? Can I take my GRE in november, is that too late? Do they require GRE Psychology?
6) What is the different between PsyD and MD in psychology?
8) I know I really want to be involved clinically, is PsyD better than Ph.D. for that?
9) Any advice for me as a new applicant?

That's all for now 🙂 Thanks in advance to those who is going to answer them! 🙂

I agree with the previous poster but thought I would add my 2 cents (anything to avoid my dissertation 😀 )

6) I'll assume you are referring to a psychiatrist. There are three primary differences between psychologist and psychiatrist. First, psychologists cannot currently prescribe medication while psychiatrists can. This leads to vastly different sorts of practices. Psychologists tend to spend most of their time engaged in talk therapy while most psychiatrists' practices are dominated by medication management (there are, of course, a ton of exceptions). Second, psychologists are trained in formal assessment while psychiatrists are not. While psychiatrists can (and frequently do) use assessment tools as part of their practice, they are not trained to complete a full psychological assessment integrating several different measures. Finally, psychiatrists are trained as doctors first. This tends to produce an emphasis on the biological causes of psychopathology relative to psychologists.

8) No, but see below.

9) Very carefully consider what exactly you want to do when you graduate before going to either a Ph.D. program or a PsyD. program. What you do as a psychologist is very dependent upon where you get your training. The specific program you attend is probably more important than the type of degree it awards.

Ad13 · Jun 8, 2005

As far as GREs go, I would take them before November. Deadlines are usually in mid-December so you want to allow enough time for processing. Also, you want to have the opportunity to take them again, if needed. Most doctoral programs, whether they are Psy.D or Ph.D, require the psychology subject test. Unlike the general GREs, the subject test is offered four times a year so you need to keep that in mind. I took them both in November and I found that doing so added additional stress to the application process. Just my opinion though.

Jasminegab · Jun 8, 2005

Medical Psychologist are allowed to prescribe in some states. Psychologists practicing in the state of New Mexico, in the U.S. military, and in Indian Health Services and other departments of the federal government have prescriptions privileges and regularly prescribe medications. In fact, medical psychologist spend much more hours in training than your typical clinical psychologist. They must seek post-doctoral training in psychopharmacology, pass a national exam, and meet other state criteria to be eligible to prescribe. Moreover, prescriptive authority would not extend to the many psychologists whose professional focus is research, teaching, consulting or other areas of psychology that do not involve seeing patients. Recommended training is a minimum 300 hours of didactic training and a supervised 100 patient practicum, beyond the doctoral training in mental health already received.

For more information you can vist this site and learn more:
New Mexico Psychological Association

There are more states that are allowing Medical psychologist to prescribe, however, I cannot find the links at this time.

Just my 2 cents.

PsychEval · Jun 8, 2005

Good point Jasminegab. Psychologists are also prescribing in Louisiana and Guam.

bb1 · Jun 10, 2005

NDS said:
I'm just starting to consider a career in psychology, I have some very rudimentary questions, that I would really appreciate if someone could answer concisely:
1) What is the difference between Ph.D and PsyD in the numbers of years in school? Can Ph.D. also get licensed to practice as a clinical psychologist?
2) does PsyD usually get funded, or are there heaven tuition like the medical school?
3) Do you have to have a master degree to get into PsyD programs?
4) What is the job prospect for Ph.D and PsyD? competition? salary? stable?
5) When is the earliest time to apply? Can I take my GRE in november, is that too late? Do they require GRE Psychology?
6) What is the different between PsyD and MD in psychology?
8) I know I really want to be involved clinically, is PsyD better than Ph.D. for that?
9) Any advice for me as a new applicant?

That's all for now 🙂 Thanks in advance to those who is going to answer them! 🙂

just a note that there are some well funded PsyD programs, albeit they are few. I am entering my 2nd year at Indiana State, where my class of 10 are all fully funded. It is more research oriented than your typical PsyD program, but it also has a wealth of clinical training, starting in year one. It seems some posts I've seen (I'm new here, BTW) underemphasize the importance of this for those who wish to be clinicians. I have worked for a few years at the masters level, and I can say that becoming a truly competent therapist takes many years. The earlier you begin this process the better (in my humble opinion).

PublicHealth · Jun 14, 2005

Paendrag said:
Does it really? There are studies out there that show no difference in therapeutic effectiveness as a function of education.

List 'em.

bb1 · Jun 14, 2005

Paendrag said:
Does it really? There are studies out there that show no difference in therapeutic effectiveness as a function of education.

I thought it was clear that I was expressing an opinion based on my own experience (?) At any rate, given the choice between a green therapist and an experienced one, I would take the latter any day. I didn't expect that to be a controversial opinion! 🙂 Seems obvious to me, having labored through the initial years of learning myself. I have six years of experience now, and feel like there is so very much still to learn. The very best therapists I've encountered have had at least thirty years under their belt.

Psychologyfiend · Jun 15, 2005

My gosh chill out

Are you referring here to Mary L. Smith and Gene V. Glass: "Meta-analysis of Psychotherapy Outcome Studies," American Psychologist, 32 (1977). Where the authors found that a therapists' credentials Ph.D., M.D., or no advanced degree and experience were unrelated to the effectiveness of therapy?

Sure its an old article and there has been much in the way of empirically supported advancement in therapy since then, but it probably still has quite a bit of credence. Therapy, it should also be noted, probably gets a lot of flack because many studies are simply underpowered, leading to conclusions of no difference between treatment groups when there is less than a 50% chance of finding a clinically signficant difference!

Which brings me to my point. I think another issue in psychology is how crappy (yeah, I think crappy is a more than fitting adjective) historically AND presently our research techniques actually are in psychology. Anyone here fans of Jacob Cohen? How about Paul Meehl? Maybe just me because I am a University of Minnesota punk, but if you havent heard of either of these fellows I suggest you start with Cohen, J. (1990). Things I have learned (so far).

Some points to take note of in the article: Pay special attention to his part on the abysmal power levels in psychology research, the crud factor, how our samples make us the science of lab rats and college sophomores, and the sole use (and misinterpretation) of the P value without taking into account other descriptive statistics, such as effect sizes and confidence intervals, statistics that provide a broader glimpse into the data analysis. Nobody seems to be using good ole Bayes theorem out there eitherif you arent hip to this issue I suggest you check out The Earth Is Round (p<.05) by Jacob Cohen.

Therapist, researcher, Psy.D, Ph.D, some days I think we should all be picking up our pay checks wearing a ski mask

P.S. Please actually read the article before you respondthanks!

Paendrag said:
It was clear you were expressing an opinion that becoming a competent therapist takes many years. I don't think there is any evidence of that.

No doubt it depends on the particular problem one is seeking assistance with, but I don't think experienced vs. green is the relevant dichotomous choice.

Interesting, my encounters do not mirror this.

psychgeek · Jun 15, 2005

Ironically, Paendrag is questioning the empirical basis of others opinions regarding the role experience plays in outcomes without providing any empirical support for his own contrary position.

Speaking of which, there is evidence that experience plays a role in positive therapeutic outcomes. Here is one cite.

Crits-Christoph, Paul; Baranackie, Kathryn; Kurcias, Julie S; Beck, Aaron T; et al. Meta-analysis of therapist effects in psychotherapy outcome studies. Psychotherapy Research. Vol 1(2) Fal-Win 1991, 81-91.

This and several other studies I cant remember off hand have found a weak association between positive outcomes and years of experience. Due to the methodological bias inherent to outcomes research, this effect is likely underestimated by the extant literature.

Investigating a career in PsyD

NDS

Member

psychgeek

Senior Member

Ad13

New Member

Jasminegab

psych student

PsychEval

Senior Member

bb1

Junior Member

PublicHealth

Membership Revoked

bb1

Junior Member

Psychologyfiend

Junior Member

psychgeek

Senior Member

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